Update 10: T9 and Eastemnet Relics

Looking at some of the Update 10 changes... yeah, there were a lot of changes for Update 10 so I’m taking it apart one piece at a time. Scroll back over the articles from the past few weeks to see 1st Age LI bartering, Rohan Rings, New loot and Gear and instances, Mithril Coins and Hytbold, RK armor set comparisons, Virtues, and summarized U10 release notes.

Today, I will turn my focus on LI Relics. I wrote about them at Update 6 (update-6-relics-and-virtues) and then again when discussing shards (rohan-shard-queen-master-of-relics) and building a LI in Rohan (rohan-85-rk-building-li-weapon). Rohan was released since that Update 6 review and with Rohan came Tier 9 Relics and special Eastemnet (True) Relics. In the link, I showed that the relics were built on a pattern where each tier had similar relics and it wasn’t really a random collection of stuff.

Relic naming got smarter and now for Update 10, every standard relic was renamed to make it more obvious what the relics were and how the relic progression was laid out by naming similar relics of different tiers similarly with more obvious names. Granted, the designers are still more flowery than I am. For example, they still use a name like “Red Agate Gem of Fortune” (the T9 gem for Fate and Critical) and I probably would have called it something clever like “T9 Gem – Fate and Critical”. However, it is less wordy than its previous name, “Red Agate Gem of Untold Wonders”.

The naming convention now looks like this:

Setting of Will	Will + Mastery
Setting of Might	Might + Mastery
Setting of Morale	Morale + Mastery
Setting of Power	Power + Mastery
Gem of Endurance	Vitality + Critical
Gem of Dexterity	Agility + Critical
Gem of Fortune	Fate + Critical
Rune of Defence	Incoming Heal Rating + Block
Rune of Deflection	ICMR + Parry
Rune of Avoidance	ICPR + Evade

Tier 9 relics are reasonably easy to acquire. Three T8s combine to make a T9. Just keep plugging along acquiring relics and combining them and soon you will be rolling in relics. Until then, you will see that the T1 through T8 relics are all named similarly so you can get used to having certain relics with you.

If you don’t get the T9 relic you really wanted and you have a different T9, you can meld the one you want for 512 shards + 1 T9 relic. As in every tier, there are 4 Setting choices, 3 Gem choices, and 3 Rune choices. Note: I would never recommend any of these three rune choices for a RK (rune is the relic I vote most likely to upgrade to a special relic). Here are the T9 relics.

The fun continues when looking at the Eastemnet/True Relics. These are special relics available for level 80+ and usable only on LIs that are level 80+. The Eastemnet Relics are obtained by melding 3 specific T9 relics + 4992 shards. The True Relics are obtained by melding 4 non-specific T9 relics + 9984 shards. It might seem like a lot, but shards are really easy to get (refer to link, rohan-shard-queen-master-of-relics).

Similar to regular relics, these special relics have a sense of progression also in that you will find special relics at level 75, 70, and 65 (Westfold, Great River, Extraordinary). However, do realize that once you make a special relic, there really is no going back. They are not used in any other melding. Eventually, when it becomes obsolete, your only option is to Refine your special relic to shards. These are the Eastemnet and True Relics.

Relics are a high impact way to shift your abilities. Let’s look at a few examples.

Max Morale: The first example is the Relic set I chose at Update 9, which is a maximum Morale focus. One of the best ways for a RK to increase morale is to choose morale relics. Otherwise, with the gear that is available, a choice of taking a certain armor piece for its morale could have a huge impact on not getting other important aspects like Mastery or Critical. So, I chose True Setting of the North, Eastemnet Gem of Hope, and True Rune of the Dark Wood. So, what was its benefit of these three?

990 morale, 0 extra DPS Mastery, +1.7% Critical, 0 tact mit (+1.6% phys mit).

Max Mastery: Here is another example. What if I wanted to maximize Mastery? I might chose True setting of the Three Hunters, True Gem of the Rising Moon, and Eastemnet Rune of Power. The benefit?

0 Morale, +6% DPS Mastery, +0.5% Critical, +0.7% tact mit (+1.5% phys mit). And, +7.5% devastate magnitude.

A Mix: Since you have two LIs, you can push the limits even further. From above, on one hand, +2000 morale, or on the other, +12% DPS Mastery, or you could split the difference… and take max morale on one LI and max dps on the other LI.

A good blend of one set of three might be the True setting of the north, True Gem of the Rising Moon, and Eastemnet Rune of Power.

435 Morale, +4% DPS Mastery, +2.1% Critical, +0.7% tactical mitigation (+1.7% phys mit).

Cheaper alternative: Or, if you wanted to go cheaper, you could mostly avoid the Eastemnet True relics and stick with the T9 relics. Here is a set of three relics, two T9s and an Eastemnet (as mentioned, the standard rune choices are absolutely horrid for RKs and I cannot recommend getting any of those ever). With T9 Setting of Morale, T9 Gem of Endurance, and Eastemnet Rune of Power…

371 Morale, +3.8% DPS Mastery, +1.8% Critical, +0.6% tactical mitigation (+1.6% phys mit).

As you can see, there are multiple ways to bend the relic sets to do great things. What you don’t want to do is just randomly throw relics at your LIs. My best advice is to set a goal and work toward it! Happy Riding!

1st Age LIs, Rohan healing rings, fans!

1st Age Legendary Items for level 85: Update 10 brought symbols for crafting 1st Age LIs for level 85. The symbols drop in Erebor Raids at level 85. When U10 released (03/06), the symbols would drop in T1 Erebor Raids. Turbine, deciding that was no good, pulled the plug on 1st agers in T1 for update U10.02 (03/20) and now they only drop in T2 Raids. While I gave it a shot, I was 0 for 44 T1 raid wins on receiving 1st Age symbols during the 2-week period. Sigh, rotten luck.

There are 3 ways to get 1st Age LIs:

• Random rare drop in T2 Erebor raids (and T2 challenge),
• Barter for it with Seals at the Skirmish vendor named “Legendary Items”,
• Buy it from the AH since it is not bound. Right now, they are occasionally listed on Arkenstone at ≈ 1000g, yowsa.

So, your options are T2 Raid persistence & luck, earning the seals to barter via many of the 3-person, 6-person, or raid instances and skirmishes, or having a fat barter wallet and fluid AH market. Instances earn 2 – 10 seals per run. As mentioned in the previous article, having a few people around to group with, you can pick your favorite instances and make a fun time of it earning lots of various loot and seals in a short time.

Occasionally, I am able to have time to Raid and my kinship gathers for a Raid once or twice a week, so Random rare drop is not out of the question… I’m just not holding my breath hoping for a lucky roll in a T2 raid win. I’m actually very thankful that we are allowed to barter such an item. In olden days, random luck was often the only option to get nice things. I consider the barter option a huge step forward for the game.

There are 3 different Barter prices at the skirmish vendor for a 1st Age symbol:

• Win on all three T1 Erebor Raids (Defense of Erebor T1 deed), then barter for 488 Seals.
• Win on all three T2 Erebor Raids (Defense of Erebor T2 deed), then barter for 427 Seals.
• With on all three T2 Challenges (Defense of Erebor Challenge), then barter for 366 Seals.

At this time, I do not know anyone who has won all three T2 Raids at level 85 or the Challenges though I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone show up with a post on youtube one day in the not too distant future. There are a couple of videos out there showing The Fires of Smaug T2 Challenge now. The T2 Lonely Mountain feels impossible, lol.

Here is what my “The Road to Erebor” deed looks like right now. It is worth a horse to complete the Meta-deed… so, it is on my list. Granted, it is on my “long-term” list, kinda like Tower of Orthanc and Dol Guldur level 85 T2 Challenge, both of which have horses that I need to acquire. Someday… someday…

Eswe’s new healing rings.

In the previous post for Update 10.1, I mentioned that Eswe had a couple of new Healer Rings (u10-rohan-rings-complete-hytbold-in-15)  so I wanted to show what they look like for comparison. Clearly, one is for Minstrels and RKs and the other one is for Captains. The RK ring takes the same Sage upgrade path explained in the post on Rohan Rings. 

Supergirl SuperFans!

I really am excited when people tell me that they are fans of the site! I hope I come across politely. Sometimes I am carrying on up to a dozen conversations at once so hopefully I say thank you and am cordial if we meet. :D

Here are two people I met this week:

Parnassica is leader of her kin and had kind words to say about the site. Thank you! Forgive me that I am not the best at taking pictures of hobbits… I often just get the tops of hobbit heads.

Arkandon was playing the part of “bird in a tree” when I flew out to Ost Guruth. I am amazed that people figure out how to climb up trees and on buildings. I am sure he will do great at “Ridge Racer” in Eregion when he gets there. ;)

Goldenstar and Merric talked about danania.net on a recent podcast (CSTM: episode190) and Tomrica transcribed it for me. It is quite the great situation when the lead in is that I am fans of my fans. Really though, I am of all my fans, just not all of them run a Mecca-site like CSTM, lol! Tsk, tsk… I’m going to have to remind Goldenstar what my name is… mebbe I will put it in my blog title and website name… oh wait… :D

Here is the transcription from that section of the podcast:

(in reference to the new store horse, steed-of-dagorlad and CSTM: steed-of-dagorlad-available-through-april)

G = Goldenstar & M = Merric

G: If she didn't tell me it was the sea blue color, I would have been like, oh ok... where's the color?  Oh and I should say that the color screenshots I got from Danica.  She is a blogger who sent me it.. and you can find it at... oh wait, it's not Danica...

M: It's Dan-an-eee-ah... it's the Super-Girl of Lorien.

G: It's the Super-Girl!  I always just call her Super-Girl!  D-a-n-a-n-i-a.net is her blog.  So she was nice enough to send me screenshots of what it looks like dyed.

M: Yea... she's a biiiiiiig horse fan.  She's awesome.

G: Yea... yup.

M: She's a great blogger, if you are not following her, you need to follow her.

G: She's super nice, she was like, "Do you need a picture? Here you go..."

M: Yea.. if you are not following her, you need to - it's at D-a-n-a-n-i-a.net

My Note: I don’t know how to write in phonetics, but it is… Daaah-naaah-nEE-aaaah :)

Rohan: 85 RK building a LI weapon

In working through the details of what to do at level 85, I needed a new Legendary item. Several LIs will be in order, but clearly the DPS weapon was the first.

I will break down the build and explain how it differs from the Legendary Item I built in the RK Legacy Guide. legacies-for-rk-stones

Legacies for DPS Stone

In the previous, I was aiming for an all-purpose DPS stone. I had put it out there that probably the best bet would be to take 6 of the 9 legacies from...

* “Fire skill Damage, Fury of Storm Damage, Chill of Winter Damage, Wrath of Flame Damage over Time, Fury of Storm Critical multiplier, Finesse, Vivid Imagery targets, Chill of Winter Debuff Duration, Distracting Flame CD”.

So, what did I do at level 85?

What I realized was that when I solo I use primarily Lightning with a smattering of Frost and rarely planted my feet long enough to spin off many Fire skills. When I go to the Moors as DPS, it is the same, with mostly quick strikes. When I go on Raids, I would mix in a bit more Fire and Frost, but even then it is situational and often out of a sense of duty because my level 75 LIs supported Fire. The reality is that I wanted a more driven Lightning approach and still keep my fundamental RK build similar (morale, mastery, critical, mitigations). With the Update 9 modifications to "skill interupt", it has become slightly more difficult to use skills with long inductions, making fire RK-ing (and healing) just a bit more difficult.

I decided that Lightning approach would benefit from (1) Fury of Storm Damage, (2) Fury of Storm Critical Multiplier, and (3) Finesse. The Fury of Storm Damage is direct damage for lightning skills. The Fury of Storm Critical Multiplier is just that; it is what supports the 10-15k hits. Finesse cuts through an opponent’s ability to defend himself by reducing the opponent’s resistance, block, parry, and evade.

That leaves 3 more legacies. When traited in Lightning (Solitary Thunder 7 traits), Frost skills also get the same +21% dps bonus as lightning does. The next best trait for me was to capitalize on the Frost with (4) Chill of Winter Damage, which fit nicely into a lightning skill rhythm and the traiting. “Vivid Imagery Targets”, the lightning AOE, is nice but expensive to advance and limited benefit with the skill having a 3 minute CD. 

To fit my build, I then opted to do something to further maximize lightning. I went with Stats legacies rather than the straight non-lightning DPS legacies. These stats benefit me in every situation whereas any other legacy was going to be very situational. At level 85, the stat legacies aren’t entirely trivial. They begin at +52, so (5) +52 Will and (6) +52 Fate.

What did those stats do at rank 1?

+52 Will gives +1.6% increased damage, 156 power, and +0.3% resistance (& 624 nCPR).

+52 Fate gives +0.2% increased crit chance (& +78 ICMR, +66 ICPR).

Bear in mind, that even with the legacies at Tier 6, some legacies will only ever be rank 1. There just aren’t really enough points to go around after you have sunk points into the Tactical Damage Rating of the stone.

Knowing that, any “Crystal of Remebrance”, which adds a legacy to a LI, will probably only ever become a rank 1 legacy. I got a Crystal as part of the pack when I bought RoR earlier this year. So, rather than add another minimally used legacy that would have no points to advance it, I added (7) +52 Vitality. The base stat legacy…

+52 Vitality gives +156 morale, +1.1% Tactical mitigation, +0.7% Physical mitigation, and +0.3% resistance (& +374 nCMR)

One thing I would never do is put Healing legacies on a DPS stone. Another thing I would never do is put “Battle Attuned Skill power cost” on anything. I now have 11,000 power when unbuffed and do not feel like I am trying much to get it; it is not directly one of my 4 pillars (though the Will needed to establish Mastery drives my power pool up).. Using skills nonstop, I have not run out of power since RoI. Part of the skill rotation uses skills that return power (like Improved Sustaining Bolt). I spoke with a friend who still slots this legacy, and his answer was that he can run out of power and has a Fire build. To each her own; do what is best for you!

Relics for DPS Stone

I would have chosen the same relics regardless of whether it is a DPS stone, Healing Stone, DPS Bag, or Healing Bag. Looking back at the 4 pillars of morale, mastery, critical, & mitigation, the greatest impact a relic could have might be in Morale, and I take advantage of the other bonuses when they support Morale. The reality is that a given piece of gear for RK might have +150 Will and other good bonuses, which is way more impact than a relic would have; however, if you swap out that Will-focused piece for a Morale-focused piece you will really miss the large gear bonuses that were built for the RK. It is an optimization question of benefits.

That said, relics are really neat, and you could optimize them many different ways. The Relic Guide @ update-6-relics-and-virtues gave a lot of detail about the different relics. Since the Guide was written, the Tier 9 relics and True Relics are more of the same, just slightly improved. If you have the relics and shards to make better relics great, and if not, get the best you are interested in affording.

If I were trying to further maximize Lightning DPS at the expense of morale, there are some real legitimate contenders in the relics. I would probably take the Setting of Endings (+7.5% devastate magnitude, and +Critical), Gem of Charity (+Tactical Mastery), and Rune of Wisdom (-2.5% attack duration, +Will). With Morale as my guiding force, I chose the relics that had the most Morale instead (see picture).

Star-lit Crystals

I have never in all the time I have been playing won an on-level star-lit crystal. So, when a 30% coupon came along, I bought three for this LI because I really wanted to see the effect. What impact does it have?

Here is what the 2nd Age level 85 RK Stone looks like. No legacy points have been added to the ratings in the table. You can see that the gain is about 4.8% for 3 stars. 

      The star-lit crystals also affect other variables on the LI. For example, on mine, each +1 star gave +1 to the stat legacies. I didn't check to see if other variable legacies were affected (finesse might be one).

	Increased damage %	Tactical Damage Rating	DPS number
Base Stone		70.75	155.7
1 star	1.6	71.88	156.5
2 stars	1.6	73.01	157.2
3 stars	1.6	74.14	158.0

Title

Of course, all stones need a title. I used “Will of Eldar Days 2”. It can be bartered by the Quartermasters in Rohan (I got mine in Snowbourn for example). It gives +37 Will. If you know of one that might fit the build better, do let me know. This one was the best I saw.

37 Will gives +1.1% increased damage. 111 power, and +0.2% resistance (& 444 nCPR).

All told, between the title, the legacies, and the passives (which were just a function of luck), this stone now named Supertra ("Super Rock") offers a very respectable +162 Will, +95 Fate, and +56 Vitality while still maximizing Lightning and the morale opportunities of the Relics. I think it turned out ok and met the objective :)

Legacies for RK bags

“Gandalf, I will teach them my ways so that I might raise up an army of Runekeepers, all mightier than myself. May we use this knowledge for the good of Middle Earth.”

It’s time to pick up from last week’s discussion on Legacies (Legacies-for-rk-stones). This week we will talk about Legacies for RK bags.

Some key common topics from last week include: how to spot a Major versus Minor legacy, setting your legacies on the LI between level 30 and 40, & the importance of having separate LIs for DPS and Healing. I won’t rehash that here.

So, let’s jump into the Legacies for Rune-satchels.

Major Legacies for RK bags

Here are the major legacies for RK bags, subdivided by type. There are 8 Major legacies. You will likely get to choose 3 of them for your RK bag.

Major:			Set	Min	Max
Distracting Winds CD			debuff	-4s	-60s
Self Motivation power return			Buff	-2s	-30s
Scribe's Spark Damage			Lightning	2%	20%
Shocking Words stun chance			Lightning	2%	20%
Essence of Flame Damage			Fire	2%	20%
Writ of Fire Damage			Fire	2%	20%
Pulses Prelude to Hope			Heal	1	9
Writ of Health			Heal	1%	10%

Minor Legacies for RK bags

And… here are the Minor bag legacies. There are 8 of them; or you can slot a Stat legacy instead of those.

Minor:			Set	Min	Max
Ceaseless Argument Damage			Lightning	1%	15%
Chilling Rhetoric CD			Frost	-1s	-10s
Frozen Epilogue CD			Frost	-5s	-160s
Do not fall this day CD			Vision	-5s	-160s
Legacy stat			x	28 / 33	36 / 41
Target Shocking Touch resist			debuff	-1700	-2000
Epic for the Ages Healing			Heal	1%	10%
Mending Verse Healing			Heal	1%	10%
Word of Exaltation CD			Heal	-4s	-30s

Time to build a RK rune-satchel

Of the 17 choices: 5 are Healing, 4 are skill damage, 1 improves stun chance, 2 are frost skill cooldowns, 3 are middle path, 1 improves Shocking Touch, & then finally the always possible stat improvement.

Let’s go through them and narrow these down to build a bag that maximizes DPS, then one for Healing.

Healing (5): (Pulses Prelude to Hope, Writ of Health, Epic for the Ages Healing, Mending Verse Healing, Word of Exaltation CD) If your job is to maximize damage, no Healing legacies belong here. For the healing bag, probably take them all.

Skill damage (4): (Scribe's Spark Damage, Essence of Flame Damage, Writ of Fire Damage, Ceaseless Argument Damage) Assuming you actually do use these skills (and why wouldn't you be?), these are some clear choices for a DPS bag.

Shocking Words stun chance: Many bosses are immune to stun chance, but this legacy is still very useful against non-bosses (and creeps). I personally use Shocking Words at lot. Once the crits and improved stun chances start rolling, this skill spends most of the fight at around 83% stun chance and hitting for over 5k damage.

  

Frost CDs (2): (Chilling Rhetoric CD, Frozen Epilogue CD) A max’ed Chilling Rhetoric legacy would put the CD from 30s to 20s. The max Frozen Epilogue would move the CD from 5 minutes to 2 min 20 sec. These are good, but what did you give up to get these?

Middle Path (3): (Distracting Winds CD, Do not fall this day CD, Self Motivation power return) All three are useful skills, but the gain versus loss… Distracting Winds CD 3 min to 2 min, Do not fall CD 10 mins to 8 min 20 sec. When are you in constant combat for 8 minutes? Mebbe Saruman? (Draigoch lasts a long time but there are constant combat interrupts that spoil this one).

Self-motivation (which was recently changed in U6)… Normal: once every 2 minutes you restore 10% of max power. With this legacy maxed, it could gain that power back in 90s. So, for example, over the course of a 6 minute fight, I could gain an additional 820ish power. That is not nothing, but how often is power really an issue AND 820 power is the difference between life and death? Let’s prepare for maximum dps and then go fix the power issue by other means if that is a problem.

Shocking Touch: I used to use Shocking touch more. Only when I really need to stop a foe in his tracks do I use it now (moors). How often have I seen anything resist a shocking touch? Not often, so I am not certain how much this legacy to lower the target's resistance really helps. It isn't the difference of can you use Shocking Touch, your touch is just more effective.

  

Build a DPS bag

For a DPS bag, I am not going to take the Healing, the frost CDs are good but situational, and the middle path only inadvertently gives more DPS if something goes very wrong.

The skill damage legacies are fairly easy choices. (1) Major: Scribe’s Spark is in constant use, followed by (2) Minor: Ceaseless Argument, (3) Major: Writ of Fire damage and (4) Major: Essence of Flame Damage.

Fortunately, my bag has 4 Majors and 2 Minors (just luck on the Reforge). My other Major choice is (5) Major: Shocking Words stun chance. Actually, I would have dropped Essence of Flame to get Shocking Words, just because of the much greater frequency and functionality (for me at least) of its use.

So, what about the 6th Legacy? I opted for a stat, Vitality (or could have gone with Will depending on how the rest of the build was designed). Chilling Rhetoric would have been good also if you use Chilling Rhetoric as often as its CD ends, and I have used Shocking Touch before. Any of the others just aren’t max DPS legacies.

 Build a Healing bag

The RK healing bag is fun!

First of all, as with the DPS stone’s Tactical Damage, you must maximize the Tactical Healing of the Healing Bag. For this reason, you will want a 2nd Age bag if you can get it, and since the skirmish guy gives them away (see bottom of Legacies-for-rk-stones), you should be able to get this one.

The Healing bag has easy choices. What helps healing? The five Healing Legacies: (1) Pulses Prelude to Hope, (2) Writ of Health, (3) Epic for the Ages Healing, (4) Mending Verse Healing, (5) Word of Exaltation CD. For the 6th Legacy, I chose a stat, Will.

You will notice that there are not enough points to maximize Tactical Healing and all five of these legacies. Which has the least value as a Healing legacy? I would vote that extra Pulses to Prelude of Hope has the least benefit. Prelude naturally lasts 30s; each additional pulse gives an extra 5s. Are you really not going to hit Prelude again within 30s? Of course, you will. It is a good part of the healing rotation. After you offer someone a Writ of Health, you follow up with a Prelude of Hope. It has no induction, is a nice heal with a HoT, AND the combination of Writ then Prelude gives power back to you and the target. It is a great skill, but meh for a legacy. Another stat might have been more useful.

A little planning on Legacies goes a long way. As always, feel free to leave comments or questions!